Avenatti

[henster]

He's young, telegenic, oozes charisma, middle class background, outsider. Could he be the dark horse of 2020?

[Pandaguineapig]

The guy had to pay out large sums of cash because he fired two women for being pregnant, the ads write themselves. He is also sleezy, even by porn lawyer standards

[Yellowhammer]

LMAO

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

John Kerry and Edwards were lawyers and couldn't get elected, voters are skeptical of lawyers. He can be a convention delegate

[Kleine Scheiße]

He should be in the House of Representatives. He is not prepared to run for anything higher.

[Bakersfield Uber Alles]

He should be in the House of Representatives. He is not prepared to run for anything higher.

[Blue3]

I think he's running just to keep the Stormy Daniels affair in the news, not forgotten in the deluge of other bad stuff

[Progressive Pessimist]

Hahaha no. Although having him be a Trump attack dog for the Democrats could be amusing. He should stay focused on taking down, or at least weakening Trump in the ways he already has been.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Dems will have Tim Ryan with Kamala Harris, they won't need Avenetti.

[Nyssus]

He should be in the House of Representatives. He is not prepared to run for anything higher.

[Mr. Morden]

Here's an excerpt from his speech in Iowa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz7gCALneO8

He says Trump plays dirty and that you need to "fight fire with fire":

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Looks like he'll try to distinguish himself among the Dem. field by arguing that the Democratic Party needs to be more Trump-like in its tactics.

[ON Progressive]

LMAO

He should be in the House of Representatives. He is not prepared to run for anything higher.

[MarkD]

Here's an excerpt from his speech in Iowa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz7gCALneO8

He says Trump plays dirty and that you need to "fight fire with fire":

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Looks like he'll try to distinguish himself among the Dem. field by arguing that the Democratic Party needs to be more Trump-like in its tactics.

I never even heard of this guy until a few days ago when you, Mr. Morden, included him in this poll:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=298073.0

I think he's being reasonable about the strategy to win.

[The Mikado]

Michael Avenatti obviously shouldn't be president, but don't immediately write off his candidacy. The guy is going to be a total clown at the primary debates if he runs and will get a lot of attention disrupting them when everyone else is playing safe. Also, cable news loves giving Michael Avenatti multiple twenty minute interviews a day, and that's a lot of free media exposure.

[OneJ]

Michael Avenatti obviously shouldn't be president, but don't immediately write off his candidacy. The guy is going to be a total clown at the primary debates if he runs and will get a lot of attention disrupting them when everyone else is playing safe. Also, cable news loves giving Michael Avenatti multiple twenty minute interviews a day, and that's a lot of free media exposure.

This. There are a lot of Dems angry about Trump and there might be enough of them angry about him so much that they go the Avenatti route or some Trump-esque route to fight fire with fire, unfortunately. It shouldn't surprise us that there could be an opening for Avenatti in a time in which partisanship is becoming more dominant, especially after Trump of all people was elected.

[Galaxie]

I wouldn't vote for him, but we do need someone on our side who knows how to play Trump's game. I am nervous about his chances, though

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

If this guy makes it to Jim Gilmore level I'll be impressed.

[NeederNodder]

Dude won't get past Iowa. He'd be a better campaign manager.

[Mr. Morden]

Michael Avenatti obviously shouldn't be president, but don't immediately write off his candidacy. The guy is going to be a total clown at the primary debates if he runs and will get a lot of attention disrupting them when everyone else is playing safe. Also, cable news loves giving Michael Avenatti multiple twenty minute interviews a day, and that's a lot of free media exposure.

One thing that I think many pundits aren't really appreciating is the fact that primary debate stage space is limited, and it's far from clear who is actually going to qualify for the debate stage, since the vast majority of prospective candidates are completely unknown to the average voter, and so will start out polling at 0 or 1%.  This is actually pretty different from the GOP race of 2016, where there were a bunch of candidates running who already had decent national name ID even if they hadn't run for prez before, including Cruz, Rubio, Christie, etc.  There just aren't too many 2020 Dems in that category.

So the problem that might come up for the Dems is that a few "clown car" type candidates could end up following Trump's example by getting a bunch of media attention for the "wrong reasons".  That is, they say a bunch of outrageous things, and it generates media coverage, which in itself could give them higher poll #s, since those will be the candidates who voters are hearing about.

I'm not suggesting that someone like Avenatti is going to come anywhere close to winning the nomination.  But could he end up driving enough media coverage to get something like 3% in the polls?  Sure.  And that could be enough to be one of the ~10 or so candidates on the main debate stage.  Which means that he could take spot that would otherwise have gone to one of the more serious (but less "exciting") candidates, like Bullock or Hickenlooper or Klobuchar or Murphy or whoever.

[Greatblueheron]

If Democrats think they can defeat Trump by running a Porn star’s, Ambulence chasing, lawyer, for President, their going to be in for a rude awakening.

[Mike Thick]

He has some serious skeletons in his closet. Strikes me more as a Ben Carson than a Trump -- candidate who has outsider appeal at first but crumbles under even slight media scrutiny

[The Mikado]

Michael Avenatti obviously shouldn't be president, but don't immediately write off his candidacy. The guy is going to be a total clown at the primary debates if he runs and will get a lot of attention disrupting them when everyone else is playing safe. Also, cable news loves giving Michael Avenatti multiple twenty minute interviews a day, and that's a lot of free media exposure.

One thing that I think many pundits aren't really appreciating is the fact that primary debate stage space is limited, and it's far from clear who is actually going to qualify for the debate stage, since the vast majority of prospective candidates are completely unknown to the average voter, and so will start out polling at 0 or 1%.  This is actually pretty different from the GOP race of 2016, where there were a bunch of candidates running who already had decent national name ID even if they hadn't run for prez before, including Cruz, Rubio, Christie, etc.  There just aren't too many 2020 Dems in that category.

So the problem that might come up for the Dems is that a few "clown car" type candidates could end up following Trump's example by getting a bunch of media attention for the "wrong reasons".  That is, they say a bunch of outrageous things, and it generates media coverage, which in itself could give them higher poll #s, since those will be the candidates who voters are hearing about.

I'm not suggesting that someone like Avenatti is going to come anywhere close to winning the nomination.  But could he end up driving enough media coverage to get something like 3% in the polls?  Sure.  And that could be enough to be one of the ~10 or so candidates on the main debate stage.  Which means that he could take spot that would otherwise have gone to one of the more serious (but less "exciting") candidates, like Bullock or Hickenlooper or Klobuchar or Murphy or whoever.

Pretty much this. His constant "I'm on television multiple hours a day sometimes because CNN and MSNBC will just do multiple 20 minute interviews with me on a single day" exposure will give him huge name recognition advantages over the various small state governors Atlas loves. No way Steve Bullock outperforms Avenatti in polls, which means Bullock will be relegated to the Kiddie Table debate while Avenatti's at the big show with Harris and Sanders and Gillibrand and Dwane The Rock Johnson and Biden.

[SATW]

Democrats: We Must Stop Trump! #impeach #resist

Some Democrats: Let's run our own version of Trump.

[HAnnA MArin County]

Democrats: We Must Stop Trump! #impeach #resist

Some Democrats: Let's run our own version of Trump.

Difference being that Michael Avenatti is not a racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, crude, mentally unstable and psychologically deranged (not to mention a pathological liar) deplorable who brags about grabbing women's genitalia, dog-whistles to white supremacists and neo-Nazis, mocks handicapped people and war veterans, attacks black professional athletes for exercising their First Amendment rights, undermines our democratic institutions, and is Putin's b!tch.

[Pericles]

You don't beat Trump with Trump and nor should you. Let Trump be Trump, the Democrats should offer something better for the majority of Americans who are sick of Trump, and for the good of the country.